Face reality, you have plateaued

"The reality is that many people and churches are stuck on a plateau"

A few years ago I spoke at a leader’s conference on the subject of “avoiding plateau”. One of my friends made the somewhat cynical comment that “you will not get many people attending your seminar, as leaders are often reluctant to admit that they are experiencing a plateau, either to themselves or to other leaders”.

The reality is that many people and churches are stuck on a plateau. What can be even scarier is that some are blissfully unaware of it. Facing up to the reality of where you are can be a very frustrating and even painful experience. But from this honest assessment you can build a foundation to make the right choices to affect change and subsequent breakthrough. Here are some indicators that you have reached a plateau and have let it negatively affect your life and leadership.

1.  You find yourself beginning to drift and you lack focus
2.  You change the goal posts so it looks like you are scoring
3.  You “super spiritualize” your assessment, saying it will happen in Gods time
4.  You blame things on the lack of resources and keep saying “if only”
5.  You keep saying “we live in the hardest place on the planet to build anything”
6.  No one admits the truth, or at least the whole truth regarding the situation

The fact is that some of these indicators are not excuses, but real, proper and justifiable reasons for things not moving as you would have hoped. If this is a correct assessment, then the plateau is a good place for you to be and can be a productive season of taking stock and repositioning yourself for the next phase. But if they are excuses then you need to face up to this potentially difficult reality.

Face reality, you have plateaued

A few years ago I spoke at a leader’s conference on the subject of “avoiding plateau”. One of my friends made the somewhat cynical comment that “you will not get many people attending your seminar, as leaders are often reluctant to admit that they are experiencing a plateau, either to themselves or to other leaders”.